The ultimate payback has officially begun and Russia’s capital Moscow is burning. Just a few days ago, Putin committed an unthinkable war crime by bombing innocent civilians for 48 hours in Ukraine. This was one of the largest attack Russia has launched since this war started. But he forgot one thing. This is 2026, not 2022.
The Ukrainian retaliation was massive and also unprecedented. Ukraine hit Moscow with an attack so large that the capital has not seen since World War II. Over a thousand attack drones completely overwhelmed Putin’s air defense systems turning his untouchable capital city into an absolute war zone. Moscow’s terrified elites are now literally watching their own military accidentally blow up their own apartment buildings in sheer panic.
The war has officially come home for Russia. The hunter has become the hunted and Putin has no one to blame but himself. This whole thing started with his mistake, a massive mistake that will go down in history. Just a few days ago, on May 15th, Russia carried out a huge wave of strikes on Ukrainian targets, killing at least 25 people and injuring hundreds more.
In the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Russia targeted a 9-story apartment building. This was a civilian building. 24 people died here, three of them being children. They were aged 12, 15, and 17. They never even hit adulthood. This Russian bombardment on Ukrainian cities and civilians lasted for more than 40 hours. But Russia forgot one thing.
Ukraine now has the ability to hit back. And they can hit back hard. They don’t need permission from the United States or Europe. They can produce weapons domestically and they can use those weapons to hit wherever they want. That’s exactly what Zelensky did. Just hours after Russia’s attack concluded, Zelensky had already instructed his defense forces to prepare for a response that was appropriate.
And that’s an important point here because boy is it going to be an appropriate response. As defense forces started planning for this appropriate response, we truly learned what kind of travesty Ukraine had to endure. Putin fired more than 3,000 attack drones, 1,300 aerial guided bombs, and 74 missiles directed against Ukrainians, Ukrainian civilians.
Many of these missiles actually hit residential buildings like we just covered. This was one of the most horrible weeks Ukraine had endured since this war started in 2022. And that only meant one thing. This retaliation was going to be something that Russia has never seen before. And this was something Putin was not expecting.
Ukraine hit anything and everything you can imagine. Even people in Moscow were not safe. Russian elites living in protected neighborhoods. High-rise neighborhood in Moscow were not safe at all. And unfortunately, it wasn’t Ukrainian drones that were hunting these apartment buildings in Moscow. It was Russian air defense systems.
But we’ll get to that in just a second. Let’s continue with what exactly happened. Ukraine launched the largest attack Moscow has ever experienced since the Second World War. That was more than 80 years ago. Now, the reason this was such a big deal, especially the attacks in Moscow, is because take a look at the air defenses and where Putin has put them.
He has created four rings of multi-layered air defense systems to protect Moscow, his capital city, the biggest city in Russia. Because of this setup, people in Moscow felt relatively safe. And that’s exactly when the panic hit and they started seeing Ukrainian drones flying with impunity over Moscow skies.
These weren’t one drones or two drones, thousands of them. And we’ll show that in just a second. But first, take a look at the Russian reaction when the drone started flying it.
“Another one is flying somewhere.”
“There it is. There it is, little Why is it overhead? That’s the Yauza. Damn it. Second one already big probably aiming for my hood.”
“The second one is definitely flying and they missed it again.”
Now this is another thing I want to point out. In this video we have a lot of clips coming up from people from Moscow. And that tells us one thing. The city does not get hit very often. So citizens don’t know that legally speaking inside of Russia they are not allowed to record these videos and publish it for the internet to see.
This was a rare occurrence, especially the scale of this. And people in their sheer panic started recording and publishing hundreds, maybe even thousands of videos. This is going to be very helpful for Ukrainians for future because they can figure out what was hit, what was not hit, and they can improve their future strikes.
But for now, let’s get into exactly what they hit. This attack on Moscow and Russia as whole lasted exactly 48 hours. That was the exact time that the Russian attack that was carried out in Ukraine lasted. This could not be more clear. This was meant to be a direct retaliation and a message to Putin himself. The Russian Defense Ministry itself confirmed that they took down more than a thousand drones in just a single day.
Again, I feel like I’m going to get tired of saying this, but this is something that has never happened inside of Russia since this war started roughly 4 years ago. Ukraine has never used more than a thousand drones. And we know they used it yesterday because Russia itself is confirming this. Now, imagine how many drones actually hit.
If Russia itself is saying that they took down a thousand drones according to Ukrainian systems forces in their public statement they said that they systematically destroyed 46 high value Russian military and naval assets during this attack. The most terrifying part for Putin was the impact this had on Russian citizens, Russian residents, especially the elites living in Moscow.
So far they have suffered from the war. I’m not going to lie. But they have not seen what they saw in the last 24 hours. This is something they didn’t think was possible. Let me explain what I mean. On your screen, you can see a drone falling near the biggest airport in Moscow. And when I say falling near, you can see the planes are right behind that fire where the drone fell.
So, this was pretty much on the airport. And because of that, we have footage from inside the airport where you can see it’s pretty much dead. It’s all dead actually. Planes are not taking off. Passengers are not there. And all the check-in counters are just closed down. In fact, we have a clip of a woman living near the airport who reacts to these drone attacks in pretty much lifetime. Take a listen.
“So, basically, they’re shelling Sheremetyevo airport.”
“This is COMPLETELY I LIVE NEAR Oh my god. Where did it explode this time? The hell is this? I’m so sick of this.”
And this happened all over Moscow. This was just one airport target and I doubt Ukraine was even trying to target that airport.
This is where we have to remember that there has been GPS jamming going on in Russia for the last 2 years. People can’t just put in an address on their phone and go to a place they want to go because GPS don’t work. And because of this, we have seen Russian people or I guess people who are going to Russia to visit basically break down crying because they are lost in the city.
Because of all those jamming, GPS jamming and drone jamming, drones sometimes just lose control and fall wherever they are. They just fall down from the sky. And that does cause a random fire on an airport like we just saw. Now, this was happening all over Russia, and we can see that from another clip that came out from a Russian woman who was just walking around. Take a look.
“Uh, I’m so shocked. I I’ve never been this scared before. Well, not everyone, actually. It seems like everyone is packing up and leaving. And if you take a look around, you can see that everyone is finally heading out the door.”
“We’re going to the car and getting the hell out of here. Everyone is standing in the stairwell. Everyone is hiding in the stairwells.”
And as if this wasn’t bad enough already, we had Russian air defenses accidentally shooting their own apartment buildings. And this is not something that I’m making up. This is something we have on footage. And on top of that, we have Russian citizens confirming that they saw with their own eyes Russian air defense missiles falling on an apartment building or striking an apartment building. I’m not sure which one it is, but you guys take a look and let me know in the comments below. Take a look at the strike first.
“Holy. Uh, they hit uh basically air defense hit the building next door, the one across the street. Uh, the road from Nikita’s building.”
Then you can see the footage on your screen of a Ukrainian drone going into an oil refinery inside of Russia. This is a pretty major refinery in Moscow. This facility is located in Kapotnya district of Moscow owned by Gazprom processes roughly 245 barrels of oil per day and around 40% of that fuel actually goes back into Moscow.
So it serves the domestic demand. That means it’s one of the most heavily guarded sites in the region. And despite that, a drone is flying in and dealing that could be hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. A single drone. Do you guys think this is a proportionate response so far or should we keep going? I think we should keep going cuz after all, it wasn’t Ukraine who started the war, it was Russia.
So Russia doesn’t get to now decide to stop the war just because Ukrainians are heading back. We also had a fuel loading station get hit in the village of Danilovskoe. The fire was so big that you could see it from miles and miles away. Strikes also included an FSB patrol ship in Kaspiysk, an air defense system in Luhansk and of course Black Sea fleet communications in Crimea and multiple different command posts.
Ukraine was hitting Russia in water and air and of course on land. There was nowhere to hide. As I said at the beginning, the hunters became the hunted. For many Russians, this was their worst nightmare. There was so much panic that we can hear it in the clips coming out where Russians are talking about how they felt.
This is something Ukrainians have been feeling for the last 4 years. Majority of this war, Russia was able to hit Ukraine with pretty much impunity. Ukraine was heading back, but it was nothing proportionate. And now the Ukrainian response is getting very proportionate. So take a look at this Russian reaction.
“This there was this buzzing sound. I don’t even know how to describe it. It was like something was flying right over our house. It I was scared. And then when I saw the smoke, we woke up at 4:00 in the morning coming from the woods. Um well, not exactly our woods, but the ones on the little hill nearby just 3 minutes away. There was all that smoke. I thought, ‘Oh my god, it’s so close.’ Just actually that uh that sound right now, those are planes flying. When planes are flying, it means well the airport, Sheremetyevo airport is open, so everything is calm. I’d rather they make noise than anything else. Uh anyway, it was buzzing like that and then those explosions. I was so I was just shaking. I was lying under the blanket fully dressed. I was the air is biting cold. It chills me to the bone. Um was right that Valera. I couldn’t calm my nerves.”
Ukrainian drone commander put out this statement after this whole operation concluded. And the statement was very simple and something that I’m sure Russians will think about a lot.
“Moscow never sleeps.”
And on top of that, I’m not 100% that’s what I mean to say, but I think that’s a drone. And the message is written on a wing of a drone that’s likely going to go into Russia or Russian occupied territory. So Russians are going to get this message hand delivered.
“One-sided subscription to a peaceful life is cancelled. Important to enter the right conversation, but even more important is the art of exiting alone.”
Basically, if Putin wants to save himself, he needs to stop the war and withdraw Russian troops. President Zelensky also put out a statement basically clarifying that this attack that Ukraine carried out, it was an entirely justified retaliation because of an attack that Russia carried out. Take a look.
“Our response to Russia’s prolongation of the war and its attacks on our cities and communities are entirely justified. This time, Ukrainian long range sanctions reached the Moscow region. And we are clearly telling the Russians their state must end its war. Ukrainian drone and missile manufacturers continue their work. I’m grateful to the security service of Ukraine and all defense forces of Ukraine for their protection and for their precision. The distance from Ukraine state border is over 500 kilometers, roughly 300 miles. The concentration of Russian air defenses in the Moscow region is the highest. But Ukraine is overcoming it all. Glory to Ukraine.”
The situation got so bad for the Russians that they are now open to talking to Europe. And this is a statement coming straight from Kremlin spokesperson. Peskov says that Kremlin is interested in restoring dialogue with Ukraine. This happens on May 17th, right after the Moscow attack. I’m going to give you guys one guess, if you can guess in the comments, why he’s saying this now.
Now, unfortunately, he’s only saying this for the public. He’s not really giving the reason as to why. And on top of that, the Russian public outside of Moscow, well, their news is not the news that you guys are getting from this video. For the Russian public who don’t see with their own eyes what’s happening, well, they may never know what exactly happened because this is what Russian news channels are showing. Take a listen yourself.
“Last night and this morning, air defense forces repelled one of the most massive Ukrainian drone raids of the entire special military operation.”
“But first, about the repelling of the large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on the capital region. As Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin reported, air defense systems shot down more than 120 drones over the past 24 hours. One of the most massive Ukrainian drone attacks, including against the capital region, was repelled.”
Refineries are burning, factories are burning, and the Russian news is saying, the Kremlin state media is saying that, “Hey, we repel the attack.” But you see, the situation is getting so sickening that now even Russian war bloggers are speaking out against the Kremlin propaganda. These war bloggers are big supporters of this invasion that Putin started, but it’s going so horribly wrong that they’re now turning against the Kremlin. And this statement that we’re about to look at, this comes from Romanov, one of the biggest war bloggers inside of Russia. Take a look at what he said.
“If you see with your own eyes something that contradicts the statements of official sources, don’t believe your eyes. Last night, the debris of a kamikaze drone from the Ukrainian armed forces attacked EuroChem-Belorechensk Mineral Fertilizers, the largest chemical industry enterprise in southern Russia. But according to the governor of the region, there is no damage. So trust the official sources.”
Now, of course, he’s being sarcastic. He’s calling out the official line and how laughable it is because take a look at the fire that that factory is suffering from. You can see that from probably tens of miles away. And Russia is saying there was no damage. This reminds me of the famous quote from George Orwell.
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final most essential command.”
For Russia, the war is coming home. According to Zelensky, war is returning to where it came from, to Moscow. And Putin is now telling his citizens that they need to close their eyes and ears. This is not going according to plan at all.
